[Beijing] The Belvedere of Literary Profundity (文渊阁, wen yuan ge) is one of the few unique palace building in the Forbidden City. Unlike most other structures that is composed in red walls and yellow glazed tiles, the two-storey pavilion is covered by black glazed tiles on the roof trimmed with green glazed tiles and its beams were painted in green too. These colors render the pavilion solemn and elegance.
More importantly, officials and builders hoped that the color black, which betokened water in the Five Primary Elements (五行) would safeguard the building against fire. Initially built as an imperial library and a place for intellectual discussions by senior officials from the Ming dynasty, it was later burnt down and reconstructed during Emperor Qianlong’s reign. The pavilion retained its status as a library and stored numerous works, other than the emperor, officials and grand secretaries were also allowed to make use of the books preserved here.
One of the collection is the Siku Quanshu (四库全书), the largest collection of books in Chinese history, there were 7 copies of them, each copy consisted of 36,304 books. Some of the copies were either destroyed completely during war times or had different degree of damages. However, the one kept at The Belvedere of Literary Profundity was unhurt, and it can be found today at the National Palace Museum in Taipei (國立故宮博物院). 🐉 📍Beijing, China. 中国北京。🇨🇳
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